Gothamist tips us to the latest atheism campaign which just launched on Chicago's public transit system. This one is from the Illini Secular Student Association at the University of Illinois.

ISSA explains, "A consequence of the centuries-spanning PR campaign conflating theism (and especially Christianity) with the impulse to charity has largely duped Americans into believing that Christians are the major givers and that non-believers are selfish, angry loners unconcerned with the struggles of the less fortunate...Not only is the stereotype untrue, it is perversely untrue." The bus campaign ads feature high profile philanthropists including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. The ISSA's tagline? "Good without god."

RELATED: On their Secular Samaritan blog, today the ISSA notes that Catholic Cardinal George Pell is calling atheists "immoral, frightened, and without purpose."

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American Family Association: Gays Should Be Paying For 100% Of All AIDS Research

Bryan Fischer, radio host for the SPLC-certified hate group the American Family Association, says that gay people should shoulder the cost of AIDS research. Because only homosexuals get it.

We know what causes AIDS: homosexual sex and injection drug use. The Centers for Disease Control tell us that of all the males who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS since the epidemic started in 1977, 91% contracted it either through having sex with other males or through intravenous drug abuse.

Since we know the cause, we know the cure: stop engaging in homosexual sex and stop shooting up with drugs. Well, homosexual activist groups likewise are pushing a lifestyle that kills. If anybody should be obligated to pony up funds to mitigate a health crisis, it ought to be the organizations that are responsible for advocating the very behavior that created and perpetuates the epidemic.

Surely we will be accused of lacking compassion. But this is hardly the case. If you care about an individual, and you see that he is involved in a self-destructive pattern of behavior, the most loving thing you can to is appeal to him to start making better lifestyle choices. It is hardly compassionate to urge him to continue to engage in conduct that everybody in the world knows has a good chance of killing him in the end. That, in fact, is a form of cruelty.

Bryan Fischer's AFA radio show is heard for two hours daily on over 200 Christian radio stations in North America, with an estimated daily audience of over two million. And you can fucking bet that many, many of his listeners completely believe that only dirty queers get AIDS.

As predicted earlier, the Republicans are pontificating about how tax cuts will solve the unemployment crisis.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH): Any sign of job growth in this struggling economy is encouraging, but clearly no match for the uncertainty families and small businesses are facing, which is why we must cut spending and stop all the looming tax hikes.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA): We must do everything possible to bring that number down and get people back to work by ending the uncertainty that is plaguing the private sector. To start, Congress should reassure job creators and investors by taking the impending tax hikes off the table.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN): Today's heartbreaking unemployment report should be yet another wake-up call to Democrats that raising taxes in the middle of the worst economy in 25 years is a mistake. Higher taxes on America's small businesses won't get anyone hired. I call on Washington Democrats to abandon their plan to raise taxes on small businesses and get America back to work.

Where are the Democrats lining up on cable news shouting into the camera about how the Bush tax cuts failed to prevent the worst recession since the Great Depression, or how they failed to prevent wage stagnation for the middle class, or how they failed to actually create any jobs?

Where's the White House on this front?

I seriously believe this week is a low-water mark for the Obama presidency. Let's hope the administration will wise up -- and soon.

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Alan Grayson, you will be missed. Here he is taking on the Republicans seflish motives in extending the Bush Tax Cuts.

Grayson lost the election and will be heading home soon, but he is still on the floor of the House telling it like it is. I believe he deserves a lot of credit for fighting the good fight despite his loss. Here's to hoping he runs for office again.

Obviously the President isn't going to stand up and fight back but maybe someone else in Washington wants to? It's insane to tolerate BP and their legal tactics after everything they did to ruin the environment

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And yet some people think WikiLeaks is the problem? No, it's programs like this and an out of control government that is the problem. Transparency and accountability is a good thing. Let's talk about who is the real rogue and who hates freedom.

Federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking Americans in real-time using credit cards, loyalty cards and travel reservations without getting a court order, a new document released under a government sunshine request shows.

The document, obtained by security researcher Christopher Soghoian, explains how so-called "Hotwatch" orders allow for real-time tracking of individuals in a criminal investigation via credit card companies, rental car agencies, calling cards, and even grocery store loyalty programs. The revelation sheds a little more light on the Justice Department's increasing power and willingness to surveil Americans with little to no judicial or Congressional oversight.

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You'd think after 9 years of war, the President wouldn't have to sneak in like a thief in the night:

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — Speaking to nearly 4,000 U.S. troops here after a secret overnight flight from Washington, President Barack Obama on Friday said they were making "important progress" against militants in Afghanistan.

"Today we can be proud that there are fewer areas under Taliban control," he said.

...

The world's most technically advanced, best trained, and most professional army and we can't beat a bunch of 12th Century goat humpers into submission? So what's winning gonna look like? Guess I shouldn't hold my breath for "MacArthur on the Missouri", eh?

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Time, of all places, has some sanity about Wikileaks. Here's Fareed Zakaria, and here's the cover story. Both point out that a big part of the issue is stamping too many things "Secret" and distributing access to these secrets too broadly. Zakaria, like Fred Kaplan earlier this week, thinks that what's been released so far is mostly evidence of competent diplomacy.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), known for his tendentious remarks on the House floor, argued Thursday night for the elimination of the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan research agency that has existed since the 1970s.

Gohmert also disputed the CBO's conclusion that extending the Bush tax cuts would increase the federal deficit.

"And despite the misinformation spewed on this floor, the fact is that when taxes have been cut, revenues go up — each time it's been done. But we have such an ignorant way for CBO to operate, so for this political animal, and I know people say it's bipartisan — baloney. CBO is not bipartisan," he said.

"They can say what they want. But if CBO were really bipartisan, the facts wouldn't be so clear as they are about what CBO has done. Uh, they are quite partisan … We need bills scored by groups that can look at history and reality."

There's reality, and then there is what Gohmet "knows." These two are not the same thing, so reality must go.

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"Before I was born, my right to life was absolute. After I was born, my right to life was relative. Did I do something wrong?"

The Sons of Confederate Veterans plan to hold a $100-per-person Secession Ball on Dec. 20 in Gaillard Municipal Auditorium. It will feature a play highlighting key moments from the signing of South Carolina's Ordinance of Secession 150 years ago, an act that severed the state's ties to the Union and put the nation on the path to the Civil War.

Jeff Antley, who is organizing the event, said the Secession Ball honors the men who stood up for their rights.

"To say that we are commemorating and celebrating the signers of the ordinance and the act of South Carolina going that route is an accurate statement," Antley said. "The secession movement in South Carolina was a demonstration of freedom."

They deny that slavery has anything to do with it, but when you're celebrating the secession, you're celebrating a stand which meant perpetuation of a system in which white people OWNED black people outright, and were legally able to buy, sell, abuse, rape, and work them to death at will.

That's the good old days for "states rights" Republicans. And THAT'S what they mean when they talk about it.

Nope. Got nothing to do with racism. Believing that an entire race should be subordinate to another and that human beings can be owned isn't racist at all. Not in these people's minds.

Fools, all of them. The data is now out there. As any parent well knows, telling a kid that something is off-limits only makes that something more alluring. The Obama Administration is engaging in full-blown locking and bolting the door shut after the horse has long ago left the barn.

Once information is out there, it is out there forever.

They cannot stop the signal. They are morons to even try to do so, for it makes what WikiLeaks is publishing look even more alluring to reporters around the world.

The geeks at poodwaddle have a multi-faced clock that ticks the meter on more measures than you really want: population, death, illness, environment, energy, crime, food, the U.S. debt, auto and bicycle production and more.

It could use a ticker for clean water, given that the global oil wars will soon give way to global water wars, but what's there is fascinating. More astonishing than the numerical totals is the speed at which the numbers increase or decrease.

Be sure to thank it. Thank it publicly. In the letters page of your local paper. And in your holiday letters and emails.

Here's the official roll call from the clerk of the House of Representatives. The motion was to extend tax cuts for the middle-class. A "No" vote is a vote to let those tax cuts expire, thus raising taxes on middle-class families. In the list of "No" votes, you will find every single repug member of the House, except for Paul, Jones and Duncan. Every other repug voted to raise your taxes.

It's obvious to anyone who reads a newspaper that America is in desperate need of new pundits. The op-ed, once a hallowed institution of intellectual political thought, has been beseiged by idiots, celebrities, and senile old-guard journalists who are incapable of seeing the world around them or coming up with original ideas. Thus, we turn our eyes to a new generation: Andrew Pendergraft of The Andrew Show, a Web production from WhitePrideTV.com. Andrew is a pint-sized conservative who's not afraid to actually say he's racist. That's pretty refreshing. We've compiled a video featuring some of his best political dogma, from his thoughts on Barack Obama and illegal immigrants to sex education in the nation's schools. http://wonkette.com/431640/racist-child-is-americas-greatest-pundit#more-431640

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Sarah Palin has wished all American Jews a happy Hanukkah on Facebook, because all good Christians know being nice to Jews, despite them being wrong about Jesus, is how you earn special been-nice-to-Jews coupons you can spend in heaven. Most commenters understand this and tried to one-up one another with stories of how they honor this important (unimportant) Jew holiday. One was even kind enough to remind Palin of the fact that she is literally the modern-day Moses. But others weren't too happy about all of this, because one is supposed to say "Merry Christmas" and nothing else ever. Let's take a look at some of these festive comments. READ MORE »

Republicans, who will control the House of Representatives in January, greeted the idea of Internet "do not track" legislation coolly on Thursday, expressing concern that hindering advertiser access to consumers web browsing habits would slow innovation.

Their opposition bodes badly for the Federal Trade Commission as it promotes a plan to allow consumers to bar data and advertising companies from monitoring what websites they view and what content they download.

Representative Ed Whitfield, the ranking Republican on the House consumer protection subcommittee, expressed concern that the free services now financed by advertising would be hurt, and that consumers would lose access to ads they want to see.